Leaders of the European Union (EU)member states hammered out on Friday a common approach to globalization, in a bid to shape the trend in the interests of the27-nation bloc.
"On the agenda for the future, we also approved a declaration on globalization today," Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country holds the EU presidency, told reporters after a year-end summit today with his counterparts.
One day after ending a decade-long institutional impasse with a landmark reform treaty signed in Lisbon, EU leaders now turned their attention to outside challenges of globalization.
EU leaders agreed globalization brings both opportunities and challenges to Europe, which requires the EU internal and external policies to be harnessed.
In face of the challenges, the EU leaders called for further reforms on the internal side.
"Investment in research, innovation and education should be strengthened as a central driver for growth and jobs and to ensure that all will benefit from the opportunities of globalization," they said in the declaration.
On the external side, the EU leaders were committed to openness, however based on reciprocity.
"The (European) Union has always promoted free trade and openness as a means to foster growth, employment and development for itself and its trading partners and intends to continue taking the lead in this domain," the declaration said.
Meanwhile, "the European Union will press for increasingly open markets which should lead to reciprocal benefits," it added.
The whole idea to have a declaration on globalization was mainly attributed to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who once described properly-managed globalization as "a force for good."
"We'll sign today a declaration on globalization which will be Europe reaching out to the rest of the world to meet all the challenges: economic development, environmental security and prosperity for the future," Brown said on his arrival for the one-day summit in Brussels.
With a common approach on globalization, Britain, a traditionally trade liberalist country, wanted to resist the protectionist call arising within the EU, notably from France.
Last month, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the European Parliament that Europe should be flexible in sticking to free market principles, advocating readiness to protect European farmers and industries from harsh competition.
"We will be basing ourselves on open economy, basing ourselves on competitiveness of the European economy," Socrates said.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said globalization has made the EU indispensable and more than ever necessary since no single member state can meet the challenges.
The 27 member states of the EU are now trying to take a lead in the global drive to fight against climate change.
The declaration said the EU "will deliver" on its "very ambitious commitments" adopted in March this year to boost renewable and cut greenhouse gas emissions, while calling others, most notably the United States, Russia, China, India and Brazil, to follow suit.
Source: Xinhua
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